


Those We Love

by BlueNerdBird



Series: Angsty Vellan Timeline [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, I Made Myself Cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 22:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17129723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueNerdBird/pseuds/BlueNerdBird
Summary: Caitris and Fenaren get ambushed after an argument.





	Those We Love

Caitris woke to a hand shaking her shoulder. The world felt dizzy, and her head foggy as she found the will to open her eyes.

“Cait, I think I hear something,” she heard Fenaren say. She rolled over into his lap. The drinks from the night before swirled around her head as she moved, and she recognized a hangover from the drinking after a fight with her brother.

“Not ready yet,” she mumbled, but she felt her head thump against the ground as he stood up suddenly. This roused her attention, as she woke further, blinking rapidly to adjust to the morning light.

“Well well well, what have we here?” a nasally voice said, emerging from the brush. She tried to move faster, but the blood pounded in her head as she tried to shuffle around and grab for her sword.

She looked up and saw her brother standing over her, daggers brandished, as a smug woman approached, skin a deep cobalt blue with white hair and piercing red eyes. She struggled to rise but moved so her back was up against Fenaren’s. She blinked again, trying to clear her head as two more approached from her side.

“Looks like we got a couple of lost kids here boys, you know the drill,” the woman said, her face contorting into a twisted smile as she snapped her fingers.

She felt Fenaren shift as the drow woman lurched at him, and Caitris parried the two drow that had come for her throat. With a strong shove, she knocked them back, crouching as she grabbed her shield and blocked another blade headed for her middle.

Steel against steel rang out against the morning, ringing loudly in Caitris’ head. It was loud, and getting louder as another approached from the brush, catching Fenaren off guard. As her sword sliced across one drow, she heard a sickening sound of steel cutting into flesh.

_ “Fen!”  _ she called, but he kept fighting. She could smell blood gathering in the air and feel it pounding, louder still. A strong blow against her shield made her body rattle and her vision go white as it reverberated through her.

With another swift blow, she finished off the second one on her side, turning around to help her brother, who was bleeding heavily from his side.

She engaged the drow woman, while he took the other cloaked figure. She heard a gurgled cry as Fenaren slit the man’s throat, and then his shout from her right.

_ “Cait no!”  _ another unseen attacker leapt from the brush, headed straight for her. She moved her shield to block as much of the blow, but it still caught her shoulder rather painfully. Vision blurring as the world spun around her, Caitris saw the drow woman lunge for her, a terrifying smile on her face.

Time slowed in her altered state. As the woman brought her dagger to puncture Caitris’ abdomen, she saw a flash of white as Fenaren jumped in front of her. She let out a scream as the dagger cut straight through his middle.

Blood pounding louder, the sound in the clearing became a slow beat as blood spilled onto the ground. She was frozen as he hit the ground soundlessly.

She saw him give a weak smile from the ground before the drow woman saw her chance and brought her other dagger up to slit his throat, and Caitris could only watch in horror as the life drained from her brother, onto her hands, and down into the dirt.

The world went blank. She could hear nothing, see nothing. Her brain acted on animal impulses as her blade tore through the raiders, spilling even more blood into the dirt as it mixed with her brother’s. Blood began to boil beneath her skin, raging against her flesh as she cried out, tearing them to pieces.

As the blood simmered to a dull roar, she fell to her knees, unable to form thoughts as she looked at her hands. Covered in blood, she couldn’t tell how much of it was hers, her brothers, or the unnamed raiders she had just slain. Murderer or family, their blood looked no different.

At some point it had started to rain, but she couldn’t feel it. She only heard the patter of raindrops as they hit her shield on the ground.

She saw her brother’s body in front of her, but no matter how long she sat there, she knew deep down that he would never move again.

War drums echoed in her head, her pulse still racing from the fight, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

Maybe if they hadn’t fought, she wouldn’t have gotten drunk. Maybe then she wouldn’t have been hungover and could’ve helped fight them off.

Maybe Fenaren wouldn’t be dead in front of her.

Caitris had no time to cry. There was no way of knowing all the drow elves had been killed, there easily could still be some lingering in the woods. She angled her ears to listen, but she still couldn’t hear. The rain was becoming white noise.

She knew she needed to move. To pick up her weapon and ready herself. Nothing. Losing hope, she tried screaming at herself to get up, but no sound came out.

Time passed.

At some point, somehow, Caitris got up. Unable to think clearly, she knew that he needed to be buried. He deserved better than the dirt of where he was killed, but she could barely move.

Hand over hand, she dug the dirt up with her hands. The sky was dark before the hole was big enough to fit him. With shaky hands, she began to push the dirt over him. Before she covered his face, all she could think to do was plant a dry kiss to his cold forehead.

Caitris sat for hours, trying to find words to say, perhaps to pray to some deity out there, but there were no words. There was nothing she could say.

Wordlessly, she picked up the daggers he had stolen. Their grandfather’s, the ones he had been so proud to wield as they began their adventure.

She sank one into the dirt by his hand and pushed a small boulder to mark his grave. It was the only thing to do.

Carving  _ FV  _ into the stone, she clutched the other one to her chest, praying for the pounding in her head to go away.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry


End file.
